Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Hello everyone, and welcome to this special blog post. Today, the entire Altered Pages design team is sharing pages we each made to turn into a book for a very special lady, Jean Moore! As you may know, she is the owner of Altered Pages, and a wonderful lady, indeed. Our theme for the book is Strong Women, which is one of the many things we love about Jean. She is a strong woman and extremely supportive to not only her design team, but to everyone. Here is the page, front and back, that I made for our beloved leader. My page base is a 6x6 piece of chipboard that has been covered with coordinating papers from the Vintage Blue paper pad. Before attaching the paper, I figured out where I wanted my tag pocket to be, allowing my tag to protrude for easy removal. I made slits, adding a tiny hole at each end of the slit to prevent tearing. I then placed my adhesive around the edges and below each slit to form a pocket, preventing the tag from slipping all the way under the paper.

Side 1

I used a die to cut the tags and added some computer generated quotes about strong women, which I thought were quite apropos for Jean. I also used various lacy dies and punches to make further layers of embellishments to adhere my beautiful ladies collage images onto. I used some of the assorted flowers from Altered Pages and colored them with the Dylusions ink sprays to match my color palette, adding gem stone swirls and buttons.

Side 2

A bit of lace, died to match the paper, was added to the left side. I ran a die cut fleur de lys through an embossing folder, hitting the high spots with a gold ink pad, before adhering to the page. I added a bit of charcoal pencil around it to add dimension.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Hello everyone! So glad you stopped by. I have one more Christmas card to share with you today. I used a couple of beautiful stamps from Just for Fun, along with great products from Altered Pages, and I absolutely love how this turned out.

Stamp Holly Background with Olive ink onto white card stock Color with watercolor markers in green and blue. Add Love Letter Pico Embellisher to each berry and set aside to dry. Stamp Large Cardinal and just the wing onto white card stock with black StazOn and color with Copic markers.

Spritz over holly background to give it a bit more vintage look, and tone down the white background. (NOTE: Because I used water based inks, some of it will run, but be ready with your heat gun to gently heat set it and you will get this cool, shabby look.)

Fussy cut the cardinal and wing, then use black Big Brush pen to edge the images. Shape bird and wing with a large ball stylus tool and fun foam to give it shape. Adhere to card front with Adhesive dimensionals.

Cut up holly leaves so you can shape them your way.

Adhere "Merry and Bright" giant rhinestone to lower right with cut up pieces of holly leaves.

Isn't this a good looking card? I love how dimensional the cardinal looks against that fabulous holly background from Just for Fun. And what a great way to use up scraps of your Glitz papers to piece together this beautiful background.

But wait, there's more! Check out the inside. I simply resized and printed the "Merry Christmas" image to fit on a card insert that you can slip inside, giving you a nice place to sign it or write a note. These are always good to use if you have used a dark color, or paper that does not show your writing well.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Hello everyone. I want to share some really cute Christmas gift tags with you today. I love this set of stamps from Sin City Stamps, and I could not stop making tags using these cuties! As we get closer and closer to Christmas, I know that your time is getting shorter. So, I thought I would share something you could make several of in an afternoon, and use in many different ways.

Each tag was sized to fit the chosen stamp image used. All were cut from one piece of ivory card stock. The tag sizes are as follows:

Each tag was first stamped and embossed with black embossing powder and colored with Copic markers.

Color each tag with blue, green, or red distress inks, leaving the center uncolored and light.

Stamp tiny snowflakes around the image with white ink.

Add matching trim or ribbon to each, and on the green and blue tags, add holly leaves with a red dew drop from Robin's Nest. Instead of using a round hole punch on the red tag, I used a ribbon slot punch to thread the ribbon through. This made it really easy to tie a bow on the front of the red tag, as shown below.

Remember, if you don't want to use these as a simple gift tag, they make excellent focal images for a card front, too! So give them a try and make a bunch. Be sure to stop by the Sin City Stamps blog for inspiration, and the online store to check out the awesome stamp collections, stencils, and die cuts.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Hello everyone! Well, the holidays are nearing and time is running out for crafting our own handmade gifts. But I have a tag I want to share that could be used as an ornament, or spiffy up a gift for someone special.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Hello again. Barbara here with another special post today. I am still having a ton of fun using Pam Brays Christmas Collection rubber stamps. As the holidays draw closer, I am making cards that are much quicker to make, but look great! This is a regular A2 size green card. I embossed a slightly smaller piece of red card stock with a roses embossing folder and adhered as my second layer. Then I die cut the snowflakes from white card stock and adhered. Now for the fun!I stamped the candles twice onto white card with Memento black ink. Then I colored with Copic markers and cut out one completely, and the second one I cut out only the holly leaves. I used pop dots to raise the candles above the snowflakes.I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of green print card with green StazOn ink and cut into a ticket shape, wrapping a bit of baker's twine around it. This was adhered directly to the card.

And here is a bit of a close up of the dimension I got by using pop dots on the candle centerpiece. I also added a few drops of red Pico Embellisher to the berries.

And there you have it, a really quick and easy card that you can make multiples of in a jiffy. Supplies:Sin City Stamps: Pam Bray's Christmas Collection rubber stamp setCard Stock: Green, red, whiteCopic markers in reds, greens, yellowsIrresistible Pico Love Letter EmbellisherRoses embossing folderSnowflake die cutI hope you enjoyed this fun and super quick Christmas card. Check back for more inspiration from the rest of the team, and thanks for stopping by.Have a wonderful, creative week!Barbara

Friday, December 12, 2014

The House of Cards End of Term Blog Hop will run from December 1st at 6:00 AM CST through December 15th at Noon CST. Any card style is welcome and here is the inspiration! You can link up your own project, or you can just follow along and enjoy the inspiration from everyone! The choice is yours.

Don't you just love these colors? I knew, as soon as I saw this, that I had to try to make something. Here is the result.

I absolutely love tri-fold shutter cards because you have so many options for making little vignettes in each block. And if you are like me, you have tons of little punches and or die cuts, plus, you get to use those tiny scraps of papers you simply could not part with. Here's a view from above.

Click here for a link to one of many variations for tri-fold shutter cards. This is the one I used.

The instructions are pretty straight forward, so I will only explain my embellishments.

The rosette on the front was made with the Tim Holtz mini rosette die from a pearl white card stock. The epoxy sticker is from SEI Alpine Frost. The tiny reindeers were punched from tan suede card stock with a Martha Stewart punch. I simply reversed the paper in the punch to mirror image them.

The blue snowflakes were punched with an old Emaginations punch I've had for years.

Believe and the off white snowflake are both chipboard pieces from K&Co, while the Happy Holidays and tiny round epoxy stickers are also from the SEI Alpine Frost set.

In the center, the branches were punched from chocolate brown card stock, the bird from blue card stock, both using Martha Stewart punches.

I used white glittered scroll sticker borders down each side of the vertical blocks.

I hope you enjoyed my card project today and that you will give this type of card a try. Perhaps it is too late to make a bundle of these for Christmas, but you can certainly use this style for any occasion.

If you have not linked up, there is still one more day to do so. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy all the creative talent being shared and visit all the blogs in the Unruly Paper Arts 12 Days of Christmas Link Up Party you can to get as much inspiration as you can handle, and enjoy.

One of my favorite Christmas images, right after Santa and Snowmen, is the Poinsettia. Pam did a wonderful job recreating this wonderful flower. So, here is another example of what you can make with her wonderful sets.

All I did was stamp and heat emboss the poinsettia image twice with gold embossing powder, once in whole, once part. Then I colored with my Copic markers and fussy cut each one. You may notice that the flower only is not the whole flower, but just a portion of it.

Next, I added some gold Flower Soft to the center of the small flower only. Then I die cut two size frames from the pink pearl and olive pearl card stocks. I pop-dotted the olive frame and added strips of the wavy gold lines stickers around the edge. Then I adhered my poinsettia, with the smaller flower pop-dotted on top of that. You may notice that I did not align the flower, but instead, I offset it so it would have the appearance of more petals. You can play with this image and arrange it just about any way you want and have so much fun making all your flowers different.

I also added the red Wink of Stella glitter brush to the petals for extra shimmer.

I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of the beige card stock, die cut with the smallest nesting frame, edged with brown ink, and pop-dotted it, also.

One last thing, I added straight gold lines stickers around the edge of the print paper layer for that extra bling. It makes it look embossed without the trouble.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Hello everyone. Day 9 already! Whew, it is sure going by fast. I am having a blast making my Christmas cards to share with you as part of the Unruly Paper Arts 12 Days of Christmas Link Up Party. I hope you are playing along, but if not, then I hope you are enjoying all of the wonderful talent that is sharing their creativity with us.

Today, I have a simple, traditional red and green Christmas card.

It was so simple to make. Just stamp the sentiment and trumpet onto white card stock. Then use any die that will fit around the image to cut out. Color in with markers, add some gold glitter glue to the trumpet and let dry.

Next, trim green card stock to slightly smaller than card front and run through any embossing folder. I chose these snowflakes, so I hit the high spots with white ink.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Hello everyone. This month, we have another wonderful sponsor over at Altered Pages. This time, it is with Just for Fun Rubber Stamps. They have been around for quite awhile, and I have been collecting and using their stamps for years. I love making Christmas cards with my rubber stamps, and this one is a combination of stamping and collage.

I added some pretty shimmer with my clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush around the child's halo, the candle halos, and even on Santa's beard, after all, he IS magical, too!

I wanted to mat this with a piece of gold metallic card stock, but the next larger die was just too big, so I used this little tool called Magic Matters disk set. I've had this tool for years, and pull it out whenever I need to mat shapes. So I turned the gold card stock over and, using the 1/8" tool, made an exact replica of my original die cut. Pretty cool, huh?

I layered these together, then used my adhesive dimensionals to lift it up for dimension, after laying a strip of the seam binding ribbon along the center.

I made a three loop bow and adhered it to the left, along with the Christmas Wishes banner I fussy cut from a second image on the Blue Santas collage sheet. Lastly, I inked a chipboard Snowflakes with Stormy Sky ink, patted on Snow Cap paint dabber, dried, then added Salty Ocean to give it that extra pop of color. This was then adhered over the center of the bow.

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas card today, and I just want to remind you to

head over here to check out the Altered Pages December special on ALL DIGITAL collages. This month any *DIGITAL* collage sheet is only $1.00! Yes, $1.00!!! Stock up now for all your crafting and collage needs for the entire year of 2015, for only a buck a piece! This is only during December though!

And while you are checking out all of the fabulous products at Altered Pages, I hope you will also stop by the Just for Fun shop and cheek out their wonderful stamps, as well. They have quite a selection… something for everyone!